One Giant Leap
Page 27
His face broke into a wide, radiant grin.
Everyone else clapped and clamored for food, but Dadi held up a hand to silence them. “We don’t always bless our food before eating it in this family,” she said, with a pointed look at her oldest son. “But we will tonight. Tonight we have many people of different beliefs. But we are all gathered around the same table, and we are all blessed with our lives, our health, and our homes. And we will give thanks for these blessings. Yes, Gauresh, that means you, too! Bow your heads!”
And she spoke a prayer she must have worked on with my mother, as it was a strange and beautiful mix of Christian and Hindu and a little she might have made up on the fly. “Let us always look up to the stars with wonder in our hearts. Let us look into the eyes of another and find those same stars. Let us have gratitude. Let us live joyfully with one another.”
As everyone grew distracted with eating and the passing of plates, I met Mitsuko’s eye and slipped around the side of the house where darkness would shield me. The din of the crowd faded.
Moments later, my friends joined me, the shadows shifting to close around them like a protective curtain. I saw the white flash of Mitsuko’s grin as she reached out and squeezed my hand, Michael coming right behind her. Emilio was all shadows and movement. Hanna’s dark hair gleamed as she trailed behind them both.
Luka arrived last. He came to my side, and in the privacy of darkness, I pressed my fingers into his palm. I was too overcome with emotion to speak.
Luckily, Emilio never had that problem. “You guys, we’re missing out on the food!”
“Do you ever think about anything beyond your stomach?” Hanna asked.
“Yes,” he said defensively. “Just not right now. There is so much Indian food.”
“If you kids can’t get along, I will turn this thing around,” Mitsuko said.
“Already such a good mother,” said her husband, resting his chin on her shoulder.
“I just wanted to talk to you guys all at once,” I began. “I wanted to tell you . . . if it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be here celebrating my birthday today. And I—”
Mitsuko cut me off by wrapping her arms around my shoulders. “As if you needed to say anything, Cass.”
Emilio followed, engulfing the both of us. Michael, Hanna, and Luka circled the three of us like Saturn with its rings.
I looked up at the bright stars in the blue-black sky, shimmering from behind the tears in my eyes, and knew without a doubt that I would see the stars again.
“So are we going, or what?” Emilio asked.
“Going?” I repeated, puzzled.
“You know how we’ve been jealous of you going on this interstellar mission without us, Cass?” Mitsuko asked.
“Yeah, it’s not fair,” Emilio said. “So we kind of asked—”
“—bribed—”
“—Luka into setting up a little surprise for your birthday.”
I gave Luka a quizzical look.
His eyes glittered in amusement, a mischievous expression I’d never seen him wear before. “I brought Penelope here. God-Mother had sent it back to the desert. It’s hidden out in the trees behind your house. I thought we could introduce your friends to the stars. If that sounds good to you.”
Laughter burst out of me. “You people are ridiculous. Here? Now? Go to space?”
Luka was still smiling at me, eyebrows raised in challenge. “Why not? It’s only about sixty-two miles straight up. Penelope can run pretty quiet when she wants to. We can just go as far as low Earth orbit, take a quick look around. We can be back in twenty minutes.”
Incredulous, I turned to Hanna. “You’re okay with this?”
“Luka assured me that megobari ships are much roomier than ours. And if I didn’t want to go into space, I wouldn’t have been in that competition to begin with.”
I shook my head at them, now all grinning like fools at me, and knew there was no dissuading them. Not that I wanted to.
Why not indeed? We had the technology now. This was just a glimpse of our future: safe, casual, even easy spaceflight. Maybe humans would have their own designs in production before long, but it’d take a few years, at least.
We might have just been a handful of above-average kids making a series of questionable choices, but right now we were the only ones on Earth who had that technology all to ourselves.
It’d be a waste not to use it. Right?
Space would never be without danger, but at least here, and now, there was nothing standing in our way. I had once thought that if only I could go to space, just once, I could die happy.
Now I knew that once would never be enough.
“Okay,” I said, and my friends cheered. “Let’s go to space.”
Acknowledgments
IT’S SUCH A strange thing to be writing acknowledgments for this book—one that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to even write. Thank you, readers, for following Cassie’s journey to its end.
Thank you to everyone at Harper who worked on this duology: my editors, Jen Klonsky and Catherine Wallace, and especially to the copyeditors who saved me: thank you for helping me discover that I apparently like to rhyme subconsciously. Thank you also to production editors Alexandra Rakaczki and Gwen Morton; Sarah Kaufman and Alison Klapthor, who made the most beautiful cover I could ever have hoped for; and Allison Brown, Bess Braswell, and Sabrina Abballe, for all your hard work.
Thank you to my audiobook narrator, Soneela Nankani, who did such an incredible job narrating Dare Mighty Things, and did fantastically with made-up words and lots of people with accents.
To my agent, Kristin Nelson, who never wavers in her support, and helped whip this book into shape with her keen editorial eye: a million thank-yous are never enough.
A special shout-out to JJ DeBenedictis, who helped me describe as best I could what space might actually look like while traveling faster than light.
Thank you to my critique partners, Alexa Donne and Emily Neal, who held my hand during the rough ride that is writing a sequel, and to Elly Blake, who could also totally sympathize. Thanks to S.F. Henson, Alex White, and Beck McDowell, for being such great local author friends, and making sure my first-ever bookstore event was well attended. To my debut author friends—thank you for being such a supportive group and for always being there to answer questions! To my library patrons, some of whom I’ve literally watched grow up: it’s been such a pleasure serving you. Thank you for supporting me in return.
Last time, I thanked my library ladies, but now I need to update that list with a couple more names. Elaine, my self-proclaimed publicist, who never passed up an opportunity to shove my book into someone’s hands and surrounds everyone she meets with love: a big hug and thank you! Keshia and Hwoak, thank you for being so awesome at your jobs that I don’t have to worry when I’m not there, and especially for covering for me during all those times I needed to take off for one thing or another! Balancing a day job, parenting a small child, and managing a writing career can take a lot out of a person, but you all helped me make it possible.
A huge thank-you to the subscription boxes that included Dare Mighty Things in their book boxes: Once Upon a Book Club and The Bookie Box. That was a dream that I never even knew was possible until you made it happen.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who shouted about Dare Mighty Things online, took beautiful Instagram pictures, wrote reviews, interviewed me for blogs, preordered my books, invited me to come speak to your groups, recommended my book to someone else, or just sent me nice messages. You are literally the reason authors do what they do.
To my husband, who is always game to field my questions about what’s feasible in physics, logic, and engineering: I’m so glad to have had you beside me these past thirteen years. To my daughter, for being my motivation to succeed, for helping me learn time management skills, for sitting still long enough to give me a few minutes at the computer here and there, and for being just so darn cute. I love you both.
And most of all, to my parents. You shaped me, gave me the tools to become a fully functional adult (most of the time), pushed me to accomplish more than you yourselves had, and never failed to provide unconditional love and support all my life. I quite literally would not be where I am, or be the person I am, without your years of hard work, dedication, and sacrifices. Love always, and forever.
About the Author
PHOTO CREDIT BETH WINFIELD PHOTOGRAPHY
HEATHER KACZYNSKI writes books for teenagers and other people who like books about teenagers. They’re usually about teenagers saving the world, because she really believes they can.
Heather never got to go to space camp, so she had to settle for writing about it. After graduating cum laude with a degree in biology, she returned to her first love of books, and now works in a library near NASA. She lives with her husband, their daughter, and way too many books. She’s not nearly brave enough to go into space, but she did twirl a fire baton in high school. Visit her online at www.heatherkaczynski.com.
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One Giant Leap
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Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
ONE GIANT LEAP. Copyright © 2018 by Heather Kaczynski. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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COVER ART BY LUKE LUCAS
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018945998
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-247994-5
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-247990-7
1819202122PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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